An early-September trip to Florida turned out to be an eye-opener and a team-builder for Lakewood. And though the Tigers returned as an 0-1 football team, they returned as a with a feeling that they could do some damage in Colorado.

“When we walked off that field (in Florida) – even with a loss – we came off, ‘We’re going to have a pretty darn good football team when we get back to the state of Colorado,’ ” Lakewood coach Mark Robinson said this week.

See, Robinson discovered something on that trip. Yes, he had a team full of talented kids like quarterback Dylan Nelson, and an offensive line he now raves about, but until that trip, Robinson knew not what he had in John Greer, a senior running back who transferred from Overland after his junior year (and who came to Overland from Mullen before that).

“No offense to him — I didn’t even know who (Greer) was” when he transferred in, Robinson said. “They kept saying, ‘You’re going to get a pretty special kid here.’ ”

Greer “had the minimum amount of practices to get him eligible,” Robinson said, but he wasn’t able to scrimmage. So, while Greer was impressive in practice, the game against Orlando’s East River High was the first measuring stick Lakewood had.

“It’s not the same until you get him into the game,” Robinson said.

Now in the title game — largely on the back of their star running back (who had 206 yards and three scores in the quarterfinal win over Grand Junction, and 167 yards and three more TDs in last week’s semifinal win over Pomona) — Robinson and Lakewood know they have a good one.

Short stuff:

Columbine coach Andy Lowry on Saturday’s forecast, which is calling for temperatures in the mid-20s, a chance of snow, and winds up to 15 miles per hour: “I’m a little worried about the wind on Saturday.” Lowry’s Rebels, mind you, have passed all of 40 times this season.

Lowry, on opening up a quick 21-0 lead over Grandview in last week’s semifinals: “You can run 80 yards almost as fast as you can throw 80 yards.”

Lowry, on when he knew he had a team that could reach the final: “I didn’t know until last week. Our schedule’s extremely tough. The playoff schedule is extremely tough.”

Columbine’s Cameron McDondle, on his playoff haircut, which has him sporting a bleached-blonde head: “We usually do a blonde or mohawk thing for the playoffs, and I didn’t want to cut my hair, so everyone’s like, ‘Oh, you have to go blonde.’ And I tried to go blonde and it sort of turned orange on me.”

Lakewood’s Greer, on playing the underdog role nearly all season long: “We love that people doubt us and look past us just because of our size and, ‘Oh, it’s Lakewood.’ We get it done. … We slipped under the radar a lot of times. Teams looked past us a tremendous amount of times. Through the playoffs, we just had to come out and show everyone. And that’s what we did to make it here.”

Pine Creek coach Todd Miller, whose team faces Valor Christian for the 4A championship, on playing in Colorado Springs: “We play football, too. With that being said, coming up North, it’s definitely a different brand of football. Sometimes, being in a smaller media market, not having the population, obviously, and not getting the high-profile athletes, sometimes you feel inferior. … We want to represent a community that I think is hungry for a state championship.”

Miller, on how 6-foot-7 quarterback Ryan Warner has tweaked his typical run-heavy approach: “We’re an option team, but we’ve opened things up. We have a 6-7 quarterback who has a hard time bending and getting underneath, so we’ve done a lot of shotgun stuff.”